Plain and fancy

The two pairs of socks I finished over break.

The first pair is using a Regia tiger-striped yarn, I think Simply Sock Yarn called it "Tiger Carla":



They're just simple socks but for some reason took me many months to finish. As is typical for yarns like Regia and Opal, the yarn is "scratchier" than some of the softer, more expensive independent-dyer yarns (or even yarns like Lorna's Laces). Washing the socks did make them softer, and hopefully future washings will continue that.

The biggest, longest-term project I finished over break were the Alpine Glow socks. I think I have been working on these since some time in 2011. These are very complex and require a lot of concentration, which is probably why I didn't work on them very much. I LIKE twisted stitches fine, and I find the more I work a pattern the easier it becomes, but these type of projects are not the kind of "pick it up at the end of the day when I'm tired" type of project.

I was glad to get these done.



It's hard to photograph the almost bas-relief quality of the twisted stitches. This is a very clever pattern - increases and decreases make the "clock" pattern continue and move diagonally across the instep. The two socks, right and left, mirror each other.

Here's an attempt to show the twisted-stitch pattern on the instep:



Stephanie van der Linden (the author of the book these are from) says this is a traditional pattern called "Forgotten Love." (I wonder why.) I kind of like the pattern. I wonder if twisted-stitch patterns are done much with heavier yarns; I could see doing a saddle-shoulder sweater where this pattern went down the length of the sleeve from the "saddle" up at the neckline. (Perhaps for worsted weight yarns you do cabling, I don't know).

And yeah, I got thinking about designing again over break. I thought of a saddle-shoulder sweater with the twisted-stitch pattern on it, and I also thought back to that "prairie socks" idea I still hang on to - a way to do a bison-themed sock, and a way to do a "rhizosphere" sock, this one using twisted stitches. That one would be tricky and would take a lot of graphing and swatching to get it to look right. (The bison one would be simple, but I figured out a twist for the design that would make it more interesting than what I was planning). Someday. Maybe if we don't have a summer session this year I will take some times and play with those ideas.

The socks have complex diamonds in twisted stitches up on the ankles. A lot of the stuff on fancy socks doesn't show so much if you wear them with slacks. (But I can't quite bring myself to wear socks with a skirt, even a long, casual skirt)



I also have to share one of my Christmas presents. (Well, an after-Christmas present, because I had to go and try them on, but they were purchased for me). I needed to replace the old clogs I had been wearing: the soles had worn to the point where they were dangerous on wet floors, and they also had loosened up to the point where walking in them was a little arduous, compared to a better-fitting shoe.

So I got these:



I know there's a school of thought that says women's shoes should be alluring and "sexy." And yeah, these shoes begin to approach the territory of what a college friend used to call "B.C. Shoes" (B.C. for "Birth Control," as in "No man will look twice at you when you're wearing these")

But to be honest, any more, I dress to please myself rather than to please anyone else, and I like these shoes. I think they're cute. And they're definitely comfortable, which is a consideration when you spend multiple hours in a day standing on floors that are a thin layer of tile over poured concrete. They have good support built into the footbed, and I need that. They're also not too flat, which is something else I need.

Also, they will work in lab where open toed shoes are a bad idea, because of the possibility of falling glass or chemicals.

I specifically bought them big enough to wear over socks, with the idea I'd mainly wear them with slacks, but since they have buckles I think I could cinch them up to wear over hose with a skirt.